French cyclist to attempt channel crossing on pedal-powered airship French cyclist to attempt channel crossing on pedal-powered airship View gallery - 12 images May 1, 2008 Those magnificent men in their flying machines. This European summer, Frenchman Stephane Rousson will attempt to cycle across the English Channel, pedalling a twin- tilting-rotor helium airship. It's the first pedal-powered airship of its kind, complete with very delicate aerodynamics that mean Rousson will need to chance upon one of the three windless days of the year if he hopes to stay up-diddly-up-up and not go crashing down-diddly-own-down. The English Channel, its narrowest point only a tantalizing 21 miles wide, has for centuries inspired ingenious and often ill-fated inventors to try their luck at crossing in a variety of contraptions - usually more for glory than practicality. The first air crossing was more than 300 years ago, as balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard floated from Dover to Calais. 90 years later, in 1875, Matthew Webb became the first swimmer to make it from one side to the other.

The first aircraft heavier than air to cross the channel made it over in 1909, and the first hovercraft in 1959. The first purely human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross, crossed the channel in 1979, its pilot Bryan Allen pedaling the feather-light winged plane across in two hours to collect the UKP100,000 Kremer prize, and it was this attempt that caught the imagination of French cyclist Stephane Rousson. "Crossing the English Channel with a pedal-powered airship is both totally unnecessary and a very eloquent statement on human nature" says Rousson's website . His craft, Zeppy, is a helium-filled balloon airship that's just heavier than air. The pilot pedal-powers two propellers that operate on a tilting axis; take-off is achieved with the propellers in a horizontal alignment like small helicopters, and the pilot can then rotate them forward to produce forward thrust in the same was as this is achieved in a tilt-rotor aircraft, or move the propellers independently to achieve steering.

Zeppy, which Rousson believes is the world's first pedal-powered airship, was originally designed and built by Luc Geiser and his father Jean-Marc, but the duo never managed to make it fly. Rousson acquired Zeppy from the pair and made repairs and upgrades to get it in the air - but Jean-Marc died just a few days before Zeppy made its maiden flight. The delicate nature of Zeppy's aerodynamics means that conditions will have to be just about perfect for Rousson to mount his Channel crossing attempt. Winds of as little as 10km/h pose a genuine threat that Rousson will end up wet and sorry instead of triumphant - and seeing as perfect, windless days happen about three times a year across the channel, the attempt will be as much about waiting and hoping as it is about pedaling. Rousson hopes he'll find the right window of weather sometime this June. Our best wishes go with him, good luck sir! Gene Larrabee, 'Mr. Propeller' of human-powered flight, dies at 82 | MIT News Gene Larrabee, 'Mr.

Propeller' of human-powered flight, dies at 82 January 29, 2003 Leave a comment Professor E. Eugene Larrabee of aeronautics and astronautics, known as "Mr. Propeller" in the human-powered aircraft community, died on Jan. 11 in Mt. Vernon, N.Y. He was 82. Larrabee specialized in propeller and windmill design and made key original contributions to the science and technology of aircraft and road vehicles. His propeller designs achieved international recognition with the flights of the human-powered aircraft Chrysalis, built and flown at MIT in 1978-79; the Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel in 1979, and the Daedalus, which crossed the Aegean Sea in 1988. Recalling the flight of the Albatross, David Gordon Wilson, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, recalled, "The Albatross' pilot could stay aloft only 10 minutes at first.

With the MIT propeller, he stayed up for over an hour on his first flight and had to be called down because his ground crew--bicycling beneath the plane--was tired out. Thus there was no way the Albatross could cross the Channel, which took almost three hours, without the MIT propeller." Larrabee began teaching at MIT in 1946 while still a graduate student, and received the S.M. in aeronautics in 1948. He retired in 1982. A founding member of the Tech Model Aircrafters, he was a popular and accessible figure among students, colleagues and hobbyists who shared his enthusiasm for flight. "His design methods could be easily performed with a hand calculator or a spreadsheet. They were even usable by lay engineers with no specialization in aerodynamics, which made them very popular with aircraft and boat homebuilders, hobbyists, and wind power manufacturers, in addition to their expected use by the light aircraft industry," said Mark Drela, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and a former student of Larrabee's.

As for Larrabee's personal style, Drela recalled his "tendency to interject an amusing and relevant historical aviation anecdote into almost any conversation." Larrabee married the former Christine Rogan in 1950; they were introduced by an MIT student, she recalled. Larrabee kept in contact with his former students, and "many of them called to request his course notes to use in their own work," Mrs. Larrabee said. She remembered one design session, fueled by doughnuts and cider. "It was before the 55-mile-an-hour speed limit. Gene and his students sat around my dining room table and designed a car to go 100 miles an hour. It was a company car, for trips too short to take out an airplane. Later a major car maker used their ideas. He was always looking ahead," she said. Larrabee was also known for his designs for research apparatus, having contributed to the designs of the Student Wind Tunnel used at MIT from 1947-61, an innovative wall balance for testing small automobile models, and a research windmill. Born in Marlborough, in 1920, Larrabee received the B.S.

in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1942. During World War II he worked on aircraft stability and control problems at the Curtiss Wright Corp. In addition to his wife, Larrabee is survived by a daughter, Rose, of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., and a son, Paul, of Brookline. Burial will be private. A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 29, 2003. Human-Powered Flight - The Improbable Pedal-Powered Flying Machines What's the Best Circular Saw? The Improbable Pedal-Powered Flying Machines People-powered airplanes defy physics to compete in aviation's most obscure contest. Welcome to the Icarus Cup. No engines allowed. Most Popular Reed Young Advertisement - Continue Reading Below "Dad! Hold the tail down!" David Barford shouts to his 73-year-old father, Paul, who shuffles along the grass while supporting a slender spar that connects the rear stabilizers to the cockpit and wings of Betterfly, a fragile aircraft that balances on two inline wheels. David's 20-year-old daughter, Charlotte, supports the starboard-wing spar with his best friend, Paul Wales.

David's 17-year-old son, Chris, marches alongside the port wing, while David, 44, coordinates the action from the nose of the plane. Most Popular Team Betterfly's sense of urgency grows as the summer daylight fades and the sky west of Sywell Aerodrome, a rural airstrip 75 miles north of London, darkens prematurely with thunderclouds. It's the second day of the weeklong Icarus Cup, the world's most challenging human-powered-aircraft competition, and Barford wants to make a first attempt at the speed-course event. Two dozen spectators also anxiously monitor the weather, hoping the threatening rain doesn't ground the pilots. The team gently sets Betterfly on the centerline at the end of Sywell's lone paved runway. To shed weight, Barford strips down to his underwear and bike shoes, and then eases into a red fabric pilot's seat made from two aluminum folding chairs. The only controls in the transparent cockpit are bike pedals and a handle for the rudder. Barford calls out, "Three, two, one—rolling!" and begins to pedal furiously. The front-mounted propeller claws the air, and Betterfly starts gathering speed as it rolls down the runway.

The crew supporting the aircraft walk, then jog, then sprint as the wings rise from their hands. Betterfly floats off the runway, 1 foot, 2 feet, a yard. Barford's legs churn. "Go, go!" Wales shouts. The nose dips precariously, sinking to within inches of the asphalt before slowly rising to an altitude of 6 feet; Barford then flutters down the runway at an airspeed of 18 mph. "The experience is quite odd," he says later. "You feel like you're just pedaling a bike, and then everything goes quiet because you're no longer in contact with the ground." When Betterfly settles back onto the asphalt, the crew race up to support the wings, trailed by spectators on foot and bicycles. Barford has completed the 656-foot course in 42 seconds. He also earns duration points for remaining aloft a total of 62 seconds. With 1438 points, he's risen to second place, a mere 30 points behind the leader flying Betterfly's nemesis, Airglow. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Human-powered flight, dreamed of since the days of the ancient Greeks, was long considered to be impossible.

Aeronautical engineers assumed that no airplane could be light enough to fly on such a limited power source—a pair of legs—and still be sturdy enough to carry a pilot. Then in 1977, American aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready, capitalizing on breakthroughs in strong, lightweight materials, built a human-powered plane called the Gossamer Condor. After takeoff MacCready's pilot cleared an altitude of 10 feet, then flew a figure-eight pattern around pylons a half-mile apart in Shafter, Calif. The feat earned MacCready the £50,000 Kremer Prize, established in 1959 by British industrialist Henry Kremer. In 1979 MacCready's Gossamer Albatross, which used carbon fiber instead of aluminum, flew 22 miles across the English Channel in 2 hours 49 minutes. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below After those accomplishments, the public lost interest in this esoteric corner of aviation. But David Barford did not.

As a boy growing up in the town of Northampton, just 20 miles southwest of Sywell Aerodrome, he built model Gossamer Albatrosses out of cellophane and drinking straws. He left school at 15 to become an apprentice machinist at a race-engine-manufacturing company but never lost his fascination with human-powered aircraft. "They are a pure challenge," he says. "They demonstrate what can be done with so little power and the human mind." With encouragement from other enthusiasts and support from his family, Barford decided to build his own pedal-powered airplane. He milled aluminum parts in the garage of his suburban home and made rib assemblies out of balsa and Depron foam in his living room, sheathing them with Dacron and Mylar. Most Popular He cannibalized the chain and bearings from a mountain bike and the wheels from his daughter's childhood bicycle.

It took nearly eight years and $12,500 to complete the 88-pound Betterfly, which can fly on just 300 watts of power, compared with the 400 watts required by most human-powered aircraft—a power-to-weight ratio well-suited to the middle-aged, 5-foot 8-inch Barford, who holds no pilot's license. "I wanted to build it," he says, "purely so I could fly." As Barford was completing his plane, another enthusiast, Bill Brooks, chairman of Britain's Human Powered Aircraft Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society, was organizing a competition to showcase the country's pedal-powered fleet. He named it the Icarus Cup, after the Greek mythological figure who plunged into the sea after flying too close to the sun and melting his man-made wings. Brooks devised arcanely scored events to demonstrate the strengths of different designs: speed on straightaways, endurance on long hauls, and maneuverability on a tricky triangular course. His real goal was to demonstrate that flying human-powered aircraft competitively could become an international sport. "I don't see that we'll all be flying to work in the mornings by pedal power," he says.

"But what's wrong with a fascinating and interesting new sport? We hope to be in the Olympics one day." The first Icarus Cup was held in 2012 at the home of the Lasham Gliding Society, 55 miles southwest of London, with five aircraft in competition: Betterfly, two craft built by universities, a plane built by professional aircraft designer John Edgley, and Airglow. Multiple pilots flew each plane; the pilot with the most cumulative points earned £2000 ($3100) and a small silver cup. Clearly, glory, not fortune, was the motivation. Although Airglow flew four times as far as Betterfly and topped the field, Barford had proved he could compete. His 500-yard flights were 10 times farther than he had expected. This second edition of the Icarus Cup has been sanctioned by the International Air Sports Federation, and federation officials are mulling over the creation of a world championship in 2015. If that occurs, Brooks will have achieved his ambitious goal in a remarkably short time.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Meanwhile, back among Sywell's patchwork of wheat fields, hedgerows, and sheep meadows, Barford may be the hometown favorite, but the odds are against him. The same professional glider pilots who triumphed in Airglow at Lasham are keen to repeat last year's victory—Robin Kraike, who has 1000 hours in microlight aircraft, and Mike Truelove, who is a flight instructor. Both are in their 40s, lean, athletic, and a head taller than Barford. "I felt on top of the world," Kraike says. "That's what we came here to do, to win." The previous day, while Kraike and Truelove were racking up points for precise takeoffs, Barford was replacing adhesive tape and foam that mice had gnawed off his aircraft while it was stored in its travel trailer. Reed Young Physics does not favor human-powered flight. To lift a 150-pound pilot, an aircraft with Betterfly's 355-square-foot airfoil and 75-foot wingspan requires around 0.55 hp to take off and about 0.45 hp to fly.

Even well-trained athletes can only manage up to 0.5 hp in bursts, and 0.3 hp for extended efforts. The aircraft competing for the Icarus Cup have comically long wings, but they need the length to fly. All wingtips generate swirls of air, or vortices, that disrupt airflow and produce drag. The longer the flight surface the smaller the effect of the vortices, and the less a pilot has to pedal to overcome drag and stay aloft. Yet long wings also make an aircraft heavier, which demands more power from the pilot. Every ounce saved from the design counts for more air time and longer distances. That's why Barford flies in just his underwear in an airplane made of balsa, foam, and thin plastic. Another weight-saving omission: safety belts and harnesses. Betterfly's wings, however, have tapered tips, "like a Spitfire airplane from World War II," Barford says. This wing shape minimizes induced drag and decreases the chance that air will separate at the wingtip during a turn, causing a stall. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below All Icarus Cup entrants, even Betterfly, have trouble steering. Control surfaces on wings generate very little force at these sluggish speeds.

Everyone crashes, and even low-velocity impacts produce major damage for these fragile aircraft. Airglow veers off course and breaks both wings piling into the multimillion-dollar King Air; Betterfly bungles a takeoff and cracks a cowling. Barford's son, Chris, steps on a wing and forces a nighttime repair to fix cracked spars, which is performed at Sywell under car headlights. The real Icarus competition becomes the repair marathon. Tool kits here contain wrenches and files for working with aluminum tubing, blue extruded Styrofoam, balsa, and resin. Around the tents and recreational vehicles of the team encampments stand large spools of replacement Dacron and Mylar that look like oversize rolls of Saran wrap. Most Popular Betterfly is not exactly the same aircraft that flew in the first Icarus Cup. The team has added fixtures to the wings that enable them to move forward on the fuselage, changing the plane's center of gravity. "That should allow us to fly slower with less drag," Barford says. But the first days of the competition are windy, and the team doesn't risk using the new design.

On the fifth day, when conditions are calm, Barford changes the wings' location and notches an impressive 102-second flight. But that achievement is quickly overshadowed by a successful 656-foot run by Airglow's Truelove, which raises his score to within 26 points of Barford's first-place total. Barford is visibly exhausted. His good-sportsman, we're-all-just-here-to-have-fun spirit has been overtaken by a gritty determination to win. The day ends with a lackluster 7-second fight. After Team Betterfly rolls the plane into the hangar, Barford slumps to the ground. "It's just not worth it," he says. At dawn, Brooks announces that high winds and more rain will likely make this sixth morning's flights the last of the Icarus Cup. At 7:30 am Truelove takes off, rises quickly, and glides above the runway for more than a minute and a half, a personal best. The flight puts him in first place with a comfortable margin of nearly 200 points. Now it's all up to Barford.

His friends and family push Betterfly to the starting point and wait for the officials' all-clear signal. When it comes, Barford shouts to his crew, "Three, two, one!" Betterfly rises smartly but then drifts worryingly to the right. Barford straightens and stabilizes 6 feet off the deck. He's never flown so smoothly. Then, halfway down the airstrip, the plane once again veers sharply. No pilot in the competition has made this kind of turn on purpose. The crowd stills, then cheers. Barford is heading into the intimidating triangle course. The crowd is shouting, "Go, David! Go, David!" Even Team Airglow is rooting loudly. Barford completes the first leg of the triangle, and then makes the 60-degree turn. The course's tight corners are the ultimate test for Betterfly's elliptical wings. The plane dips, rises a fraction, then settles onto the grass 102 seconds after liftoff. The nose is practically resting on the white chalk line that marks the end of the second leg. "He's done it!" a marshal announces over the PA system.

Grinning, Barford climbs out of the cockpit and collapses on the grass as his team and spectators surround the aircraft. "I gave it everything I had," he pants. After he pushes himself to his feet, Barford's father lets go of the wing spar long enough to give his son a hug. "I've only cried twice," Paul Barford says. "Once when you were born, and just now when you made that turn." It will be hours before the rules committee awards 500 points to Barford, securing his position in first place. But with family, friends, and human-powered-flight fans celebrating at his side, he's already won. More from Popular Mechanics: 9 Incredible, Human-Powered Aircrafts--And The Gutsy Pilots Who Flew Them | Fast Company | Business + Innovation 9 Incredible, Human-Powered Aircrafts—And The Gutsy Pilots Who Flew Them 01 /08 | Daedalus Named after the cautious father of legendarily ill-fated Icarus, the Daedalus aircraft were the culmination of work on human flight at MIT.

The Daedalus 88 aircraft holds the FAI world record for distance and duration of human powered flight with a 71.5-mile flight lasting just short of four hours between Iraklion on Crete to the island of Santorini. 02 /08 | SUMPAC Building on British tradition for aviation firsts, the Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft (SUMPAC) was the first human powered aircraft to make an officially authenticated flight on November 9th 1961. Made from nylon sheet, aluminum, and balsa wood, it was invented and constructed by students at Southampton University to win the Kremer prize. This was a competition a little like today's X-Prizes, designed to promote innovation in flight, and funded by a British industrialist and administered by the Royal Aeronautical society. SUMPAC was never able to complete the one-mile figure-of-8 course needed for the prize. 03 /08 | Gossamer Condor The Gossamer Condor won the Kremer prize on August 23 1977 in California, with amateur cyclist and hang-glider pilot Bryan Allen at the controls.

Built by the American team Paul MacCready and Peter Lissaman of AeroVironment, the aircraft had an unusual control setup a little reminiscent of the Wright brothers' aircraft and was made of lightweight plastics and aluminum spars in a very aerodynamic shape. It could take off under human power alone, thanks to its light mass of just 70 pounds and a 96-foot wingspan. 04 /08 | Gossamer Albatross Built by the same Aerovironment team as the Gossamer Condor, but with lessons learned in propulsion, aerodynamics, and a carbon fiber frame, the Albatross weighed just 70 pounds and had a 98-foot wingspan. On June 12 1979, piloted by Bryan Allen, it flew for 2 hours and 49 minutes, at a top speed of 18 miles an hour, and successfully crossed the English Channel. This flight won the second Kremer prize, designed to replicate the famous crossing by Louis Blériot in 1909.

05 /08 | Gamera Human Helicopter Students of the Clark School of Engineering and staff from the school's Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center have put together the remarkable Gamera II helicopter, a development of its earlier Gamera I. On June 21 2012 Gamera II set a new flight duration record, approved by the NAA, flying for 49.9 seconds in smooth, controlled air in an indoor environment. Gamera II weighs just 71 pounds empty, but thanks to engineering advances since earlier human flight efforts, it manages to include four rotors each nearly 43 feet across. 06 /08 | Gerhardt Cycleplane Made in 1923 by Dr W. Frederick Gerhardt, head of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Michigan, the Gerhardt Cycleplane ranks as one of the strangest of all human powered aircraft ever to achieve real flight. It had seven lightweight wings stacked on top of each other. It's also possibly the earliest.

Originally towed into the air behind a car, it made its first flight in July 1923 at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio, with Gerhardt able to keep it in the air under his own power for short intervals. Once he managed to fly it into the air himself--for just 20 feet of flight. 07 /08 | Zaschka Human-Power Aircraft Built by Engelbert Zaschka in Germany, the eponymous monoplane aircraft, which had a pretty conventional aerodynamic design, managed to take off under human power alone at the Berlin Tempelhof airport on 11 July 1934. Despite this amazing success, the pilot's muscles only managed to keep it aloft for about 60 feet. 08 /08 | Hatfield Puffin On November 16 1961, just after SUMPAC, the British Hatfield Puffin first flew. It was built by employees of (and supported by) the de Haviland Aircraft Company--the same firm which made the legendary Tiger Moth, Mosquito, Swallow (an aircraft among the first through the sound barrier), and the world's first commercial jet airliner the Comet.

After many attempts Puffin managed a best flight of some 908 meters, although this reportedly exhausted its pilot John Wimpenny. His record, however, stood for 10 years. Frenchman attempts to cross English Channel in pedal-powered airship - Telegraph France Frenchman attempts to cross English Channel in pedal-powered airship A Frenchman inspired by the film ET has set off on an attempt to become the first person to cross the English Channel in a pedal-powered airship. The Frenchman had hoped to complete the 28-mile journey Photo: GETTY IMAGES 1:16PM BST 28 Sep 2008 Stephane Rousson, 39, from Nice, took off from the coast of Hythe in Kent just before 8am and hopes to reach Wissant about five hours' later while suspended from the miniature Zeppelin. He is being shadowed by two boats during the 28-mile journey across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in case he and his contraption plunge into the sea. A spokeswoman for him, who is on board one of the boats, said: "To have set off is a victory in itself.

He had to wait for just the right weather conditions but they came at the right time. "It's all going right. He is hovering about ten metres from the water and is making a really good go of it." It marks the second attempt at the challenge by Rousson after he was forced to postpone a previous bid in June because strong winds made the feat too hazardous. It is also the second daredevil cross-Channel feat in as many days, following the success of Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy, 49, who on Friday became the first person to fly solo across the sea using a single jet-powered wing. The challenge is a long-held dream for flying enthusiast Rousson, whose love affair with aviation grew as a child after watching Steven Spielberg's alien adventure and led to him gaining a pilot's licence. He said: "When I was young, I saw the movie and watched the little guy pedalling on a bike flying in front of the moon with ET. "I always wanted to fly." The 16-metre-long helium-filled blimp, nicknamed "Miss Louise" after his former girlfriend, requires light gusts of only two knots to become airborne. Rousson had been banking on a five-hour wind-free timeframe to enable him to set off.

During the challenge, Rousson is sat underneath the envelope in a carbon fibre gondola, powering the two propellers with his feet using a bicycle-like contraption. The Frenchman qualified as a pilot in 2001, at a time when the industry took a downturn. Jobless, he devised a new way to employ his aeronautics knowledge and at the same time fulfil his passion for flying with the help of sponsors. Rousson said he also drew inspiration for his venture from the successful Channel crossing in 1979 of the Gossamer Albatross, a human-powered aircraft piloted by cyclist Bryan Allen and built by engineer Dr Paul MacCready. Aug. 23, 1977: Pedal-Powered Gossamer Condor Flies Into Record Books | WIRED Gossamer Condor Flies Into Record Books 1977: Bryan Allen completes a figure-eight course piloting and powering the Gossamer Condor to claim the Kremer Prize for human-powered flight. In 1959, British industrialist Henry Kremer created a prize for a successful human-powered aircraft. The criteria were fairly simple in concept, but would turn out to be very difficult to execute.

In order to win the prize, a person had to pilot a human-powered aircraft around a figure-eight course where the turning points are a half-mile apart. The aircraft had to clear a 10-foot hurdle at the beginning of the course and again at the end. The prize went unclaimed for more than 17 years, despite more than 50 official attempts to claim the money. By 1976, the value of the prize had grown to nearly $100,000, and a creative aerodynamicist named Paul MacCready came up with a creative solution he believed could win: Fly very slowly. Many of the attempts at winning the Kremer Prize were made with very sleek, efficient and relatively fast aircraft. But these aircraft tended to be rather heavy, which meant that, combined with their sleek design, the aircraft required more power to get airborne. And because it had to be human-powered to win the prize, power was a limited variable. While watching vultures fly one day, MacCready developed the idea he thought could lead to winning the elusive prize.

Instead of focusing on building a very aerodynamically clean aircraft with its weight and speed penalties, he would build a very light aircraft that would fly so slowly that there would be little concern for the extra drag of items like wire bracing. “It was just a big model airplane” MacCready said of the Gossamer Condor. With a wingspan of 96 feet, the pedal-powered Gossamer Condor weighed only 70 pounds. It was an extremely delicate airplane constructed with a minimal amount of aluminum for structure and covered with a very thin layer of Mylar. Because one of the requirements to win the Kremer Prize was to fly in a figure-eight, the biggest challenge proved to be figuring out how to turn the delicate airplane. Eventually the team used an idea first put into practice by the Wright brothers: wing warping . The combination of wing warping and tilting the canard wing out in front of the pilot allowed the airplane to make coordinated turns. By gently twisting the wings, the Gossamer Condor didn’t require any traditional control surfaces such as ailerons or a vertical rudder, both of which would add precious weight to the aircraft.

The concern over weight was so strong that the team often joked that if something didn’t break within two weeks of being put on the airplane, it was too heavy. By early 1977 the Gossamer Condor was setting records for human-powered flight, with flights lasting more than five minutes. Once the ability to turn was worked out, MacCready and the team were confident the Kremer Prize was within reach. (Many involved with the project say MacCready always believed he was within a few weeks of winning the prize.) The Gossamer Condor endured several crashes. But because the aircraft flew at a jogging pace and only 10 to 15 feet above the ground, the impacts were fairly minimal. The team was usually able to repair the airplane quickly and have it flying again shortly after crashes. The ultra-thin Mylar was susceptible to tearing, and the team ended up using massive amounts of Scotch tape to repair the airplane. In early August 1977, pilot (and “engine”) Bryan Allen flew through some convection turbulence and crashed the Gossamer Condor again. This time the airplane was seriously damaged. But the damage gave the team the opportunity to redesign the fuselage.

The new airplane weighed 6 pounds less than before. At Shafter, California, on Aug. 23, 1977, Allen began to pedal the Gossamer Condor on its 223rd flight. Seven minutes and 27 seconds later, after an all-out 11-mph sprint to clear the 10-foot hurdle at the end of the course, Allen had successfully completed a figure-eight and the Gossamer Condor won the Kremer Prize. The flight changed MacCready’s life. Before the record-setting flight, he was well-known in a relatively obscure corner of the aviation world. After winning the prize, and the subsequent publicity provided by an Academy Award–winning documentary about the project (video below), he would be known around the world as one of the most creative and prolific aircraft designers of all time. In 1979, MacCready would win a second Kremer Prize when the human-powered Gossamer Albatross crossed the English Channel.

With his company AeroVironment, he would go on to develop a wide range of aircraft, including a solar-powered aircraft called Helios that would set altitude records flying at more than 96,000 feet, and a life-size flying pterodactyl for the Smithsonian. He also collaborated with General Motors on the solar-powered Sunyracer and EV-1 electric car. One of the most creative and innovative aircraft designers of all time, MacCready died of brain cancer in 2007. Photo: AeroVironment Gossamer Albatross - airplanes List of Different Types of Airplanes in the World Gossamer Albatross - airplanes Gossamer Albatross The Gossamer Albatross was a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr. Paul B. MacCready's AeroVironment. On June 12 1979 it completed a successful crossing of the English Channel to win the second Kremer prize.

* (anglicky) Fotogalerie Gossamer Albatross, autor Don Monroe * (anglicky) Fotogalerie Gossamer Albatross * (anglicky) Nákresy Gossamer Albatross * 1 * Gossamer Albatross II at Seattle Museum of Flight * Shows various MacCready & Aerovironment aircraft, including Gossamer Penguin 2 * Gossamer Albatross: The Gossamer Albatross was a human-powered aircraft built by American aeronautical engineer Dr. Paul B. MacCready 's AeroVironment . ... 3 1980 the Gossamer Albatross had participated in a flight research program at NASA Dryden in a program conducted jointly by the Langley and Dryden research centers. 4 A Gossamer Albatross on take off run Image Credit A short glimpse at Human Powered Aircraft (HPA) This is a preview 5 built its successor, the Gossamer Albatross, which won the second Kremer prize for successfully flying from England to France.

6 Click to show "Gossamer Condor" result 15The Gossamer Albatross won a second Kremer prize for a human-powered flight across the English chann... 7 experimental aircraft: :*the Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel, :*the Solar Challenger, a solar electric-powered version that also made an English Channel crossing, :*NASA's Pathfinder/Helios series 8 flight, and for his Gossamer Albatross, which crossed the English Channel. 9 Gossamer Albatross adalah sebuah pesawat terbang tenaga-manusia dibuat oleh Dr Paul B. MacCready. 10 Made by AeroVironment. SOLAR-POWERED PLANE SET A ALTITUDE RECORD IN A COAST TEST FLIGHT - NYTimes.com SOLAR-POWERED PLANE SET A ALTITUDE RECORD IN A COAST TEST FLIGHT UPI Published: May 20, 1981 SHAFTER, Calif., May 19— Janice Brown, a test pilot, flew a solar-powered airplane to a record 14,300 feet yesterday in preparation for a Paris-to-London flight next month.

Several days of test flights from Shafter Airport, near Bakersfield, have shown that the plane, the Solar Challenger, designed by Paul MacCready of Pasadena, Calif., is ready for the European flight, said Ray Morgan, the project manager. Dr. MacCready designed the world's first successful human-powered aircraft, the Gossamer Condor. Its successor, the Gossamer Albatross, crossed the English Channel in June 1979, with the pilot providing the power by pumping bicycle-type pedals that turned the propeller. Although Mrs. Brown had to make several attempted takeoffs before remaining airborne, and haze dimmed the sunlight most of the day, she stayed aloft yesterday for 7 hours 21 minutes, surpassing by 1,300 feet the solar-powered record set the day before in the same plane by Steve Ptacek, another project pilot. 4 Minutes at Peak Altitude Mrs. Brown had no oxygen on board, and she spent only 4 minutes at her peak altitude. Mr. Ptacek set a flight duration record Sunday of 8 hours, 19 minutes.

Although the plane is 22 feet long and has a 47-foot wingspan, it weighs only 210 pounds, without the pilot. It is powered by 16,128 photovoltaic cells mounted on the wings and tail; the cells convert sunlight to electricity, powering a 2.7-horsepower motor that turns the propeller. The 210-mile Paris-to-London flight is scheduled to take place from June 11 to July 1. Planners want the flight to be within 10 days of June 21, the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year and thus provides the most sunlight. Mrs. Brown, a 32-year-old former elementary school teacher from Bakersfield, was chosen as the prime pilot because of her flight experience and small size. She weighed about 100 pounds when she was chosen, and has subsequently gone on a diet and is down to 93 pounds.

Question: What was the name of the human powered aircraft which crossed the Channel in 1979?
Answer: GOSSAMER ALBATROSS